Harrowells Solicitors - Case Study

Background Harrowells Solicitors offers a wide range of legal services to businesses, families and individuals throughout Yorkshire. It employs 130 people based across six offices in North and East Yorkshire. Three of the offices are in York at St Saviourgate, Clifton Moor, Haxby and Harrowells recently connected to the York CORE through York Data Services. Dan Mitchell, IT Services Manager explains how limited broadband speed has been a constraint on Harrowells and how having a gigabit speed connection will improve the productivity and effectiveness of the business. Challenge The nature of Harrowells’ business means that large amounts of data often needs to be shared between staff based at different offices. In addition all email traffic was going through a central server based in the head office in York. The slow internet speed meant that downloading and uploading files to the server could take a long time, especially at times when there were a high volume of users.

“Because everything that went out of the business via email needed to go through the server, it added to the traffic and really affected the speed of operations. We were at 95% of utilisation capacity and there was no room to expand,” explains Dan.

Solution York Data Services worked with Harrowells to bring them gigabit speed connectivity and as part of the upgrade they have helped them build a robust IT network which will better serve the needs of the business for the longer term.

“Our first priority was getting a faster connection into our business, however this has also helped us with a wider strategy to improve our network as a whole. York Data Services explained what our options were and introduced us to the idea of using a remote data server in Leeds. By moving all our data to the remote server and connecting to their network, all our offices will have a better direct connection to the ‘central hub’ which provides a more reliable and robust set up because everything is not reliant on traffic through one of our offices. This also reduces risk for us, as in the past if there was a problem, such as a long power cut in the central office, our whole business was affected, which could have serious consequences,” explained Dan.

Connecting to the York CORE will give Harrowells the speed and capacity that they need to create a robust network and to store and share data remotely through York Data Services.

“It removes a huge ‘blockage’ in the business and allows us to modernise completely by upgrading software which can now be done through the server rather than at individual work stations. This will undoubtedly improve our productivity and efficiency and make our IT infrastructure fit for the future. The team at York Data Services have been really helpful. They explained what is a rather technical process in a straightforward way and in plain English to us. We visited the datacentre and so now we really understand how it is going to work. Also, because they are based in York, it means that we have been able to discuss things face to face, so we have a great working relationship. They provide a personal service which gives us confidence that it is the right ‘fit’ for our business and that we will be looked after in the future,” said Dan.

Help to get connected Harrowells Solicitors also took advantage of the government’s voucher scheme to get connected.

“Using the £3,000 grant to get connected has really helped us. Previously, when we had looked at costs they had been prohibitive; however with the help of the grant, it was an easy decision to make.” Dan concludes.